Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-tj2md Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T08:59:50.976Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Syntax and Sense of the Ahuna Vairiia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 October 2012

AMIR AHMADI
AMIR AHMADI*
Affiliation:
Monash Universityamir.ahmadi@monash.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

One may conclude from the lull in publications on the Gāthic Ahuna Vairiia that a satisfactory understanding of the stanza is at hand. This is, however, not the case. The last substantial treatment of the stanza is from Humbach (1991 II) in his 1991 two-volume edition of the Old Avestan texts. Somewhat less extensive is the discussion we find in Kellens’ and Pirart's monumental three-volume edition and study of the Old Avestan texts (1991). In 1975, Insler published a detailed article on the Ahuna Vairiia. The late 1950s saw the appearance of four studies of the stanza by distinguished Avesta scholars: Benveniste, Humbach, Duchesne-Guillemin and Hinz. As for the number of translations there are, it virtually equals the number of scholars in the field. The source of the difficulties is the syntax of the stanza. The disagreements are due for the most part to the scholar's analysis of syntactic units. Thus the variety of translations may be reduced to a few basic types.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 22 , Issue 3-4 , October 2012 , pp. 519 - 540
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bartholomae, Christian, Altiranisches Wörterbuch. (Berlin, Walter de Gruyter, 1961).Google Scholar
Beekes, Robert S. P., “GAv. azāθā and asrū(ž)dūm.” Münchener Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft 38 (1979), pp. 5–7.Google Scholar
Benveniste, Emile, “La prière Ahuna Varya dans son exégèse zoroastrienne” Indo-Iranian Journal 1 1 (1957), pp. 77–85.Google Scholar
Cantera, Alberto, “Yima, son vara- et la daēnā mazdéenne.” Yama/Yima: variations indo-iraniennes sur la geste mythique. (eds) Azarnouche, S and Redard, C.. (Paris, Collège de France, 2012), pp. 45–66.Google Scholar
Cheung, Johnny, Etymological Dictionary of the Iranian Verb (Leiden, Brill, 2007).Google Scholar
Duchesne-Guillemin, Jacques, “Exégèse de l'Ahuna Vairya.” Indo-Iranian Journal 2 1 (1958), pp. 66–71.Google Scholar
Geldner, K. F., Avesta. The Sacred Books of the Parsis. 3 vols. (Stuttgart, 1886–1896).Google Scholar
Gershevitch, Ilya, The Avestan Hymn to Mithra (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1959)Google Scholar
Gignoux, Phillippe, ‘“Corps osseux et âme osseuse’: essai sur le chamanisme dans l'Iran ancien” Journal Asiatique 267 (1979), pp. 41–79.Google Scholar
Herrenschmidt, Clarisse, “Notes de vieux perse 3” Indo-Iranian Journal 36 (1993), pp. 45–50.Google Scholar
Hintze, Almut, Der Zamyād-Yašt. Edition, Übersetzung, Kommentar (Wiesbaden, Reichert Verlag, 1994)Google Scholar
Hintze, Almut. A Zoroastrian Liturgy. The Worship in Seven Chapters (Yasna 35–41). Iranica 12. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2007.Google Scholar
Hinz, Walther, Zarathustra (Stuttgart, W. Kohlhammer Verlag, 1961)Google Scholar
Hinz, Walther. “Zum Ahuna-Vairya-Gebet.” Indo-Iranian Journal 4 2–3 (1960), pp. 154–159.Google Scholar
Hoffmann, Karl and Forssman, Bernhard. Avestische Laut- und Flexionslehre. Innsbrucker Beiträge Zur Sprachwissenschaft 115 (Innsbruck, Grasl Druck & Neue Medien, 2004)Google Scholar
Humbach, Helmut, “Das Ahuna-Vairya Gebet.” Münchener Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft 11 (1957), pp. 67–84.Google Scholar
Humbach, Helmut. The Gāthās of Zarathushtra and the Other Old Avestan Texts. Vol. 1. Introduction - Text and Translation. 2 vols. (Heidelberg, Carl Winter, 1991).Google Scholar
Humbach, Helmut. The Gāthās of Zarathushtra and the Other Old Avestan Texts. Vol. 2. Commentary. 2 vols. (Heidelberg, Carl Winter, 1991)Google Scholar
Insler, Stanley, “The Ahuna Vairya Prayer.” Monumentum H. S. Nyberg. (ed) Duchesne-Guillemin, J., Vol. 1. Acta Iranica (Tehran: Bibliothèque Pahlavi, 1975a), pp. 409–421 Google Scholar
Insler, Stanley. The Gāthās of Zarathustra. Acta Iranica. (Tehran: Bibliothèque Pahlavi, 1975b)Google Scholar
Kellens, Jean, “Commentaire sur les premiers chapitres du Yasna” Journal Asiatique 284 1 (1996), pp. 37–108.Google Scholar
Kellens, Jean. Études avestiques et mazdéenes vol. 1. Le Ratauuō vīspe mazišta (Paris: De Boccard, 2006)Google Scholar
Kellens, Jean. Études avestiques et mazdéenes vol. 2. Le Hōm Stōm et La zone des déclarations (Y7.24 - Y15.4, avec les intercalations de Vr3 à 6). (Paris, De Boccard, 2007)Google Scholar
Kellens, Jean. Études avestiques et mazdéenes, vol. III: Le long préambule du sacrifice. Persika 15. (ed.) Briant, Pierre, (Paris, De Boccard, 2010).Google Scholar
Kellens, Jean. “L’âme entre le cadavre et le paradis.” Journal Asiatique 283 1 (1995), pp. 19–56.Google Scholar
Kellens, Jean. Le panthéon de l'Avesta ancien (Wiesbaden, Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 1994)Google Scholar
Kellens, Jean. Le verbe avestique (Wiesbaden, Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 1984).Google Scholar
Kellens, Jean. Les noms-racines de l'Avesta. Beiträge Zur Iranistik 7 (Wiesbaden, Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 1974)Google Scholar
Kellens, Jean. “Qui est gəūš tašan?” Proceedings of the Second European Conference of Iranian Studies (Rome: Societas Iranologica Europæa, 1995) pp. 347–357.Google Scholar
Kellens, Jean and Pirart, Eric. Les textes vieil-avestiques. Vol. I. Introduction, texte et traduction (Wiesbaden, Ludwig Reichert, 1988)Google Scholar
Kellens, Jean and Pirart, Eric. Les textes vieil-avestiques. Vol. II. Répertoires grammaticaux et lexique. 3 vols. (Wiesbaden, Ludwig Reichert, 1990).Google Scholar
Kellens, Jean and Pirart, Eric. Les textes vieil-avestiques. Vol. III. Commentaire. 3 vols (Wiesbaden, Ludwig Reichelt, 1991)Google Scholar
Kent, Ronald G., Old Persian: Grammar, Texts, Lexicon. 2nd edition (New Haven, American Oriental Society, 1953)Google Scholar
Kuiper, F. B. J., “Note on Avestan Ahū.” Indo-Iranian Journal 28 (1985), pp. 287–290.Google Scholar
Lommel, Herman, Die Gathas des Zarathustra (Basel/Stuttgart, Schwabe & Co. Verlag, 1971)Google Scholar
Mayrhofer, Manfred, Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindoarischen. 3 vols. (Heidelberg, Carl Winter, 1992–2001).Google Scholar
Rix, Helmut, Lexicon der Indogermanischen Verben (Wiesbaden, Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 2001)Google Scholar
Schmidt, Hans-Peter, Form and Meaning of Yasna 33 (New Haven, American Oriental Society, 1985)Google Scholar
Schwartz, Martin, “Gathic Compositional History, Y 29, and Bovine Symbolism.” Paitimāna. (ed) Siamak, Adhami, (Costa Mesa, Mazda Publishers, 2003)Google Scholar
Schwartz, Martin. “How Zarathushtra Generated the Gathic Corpus: Inner-Textual and Intertextual Composition.” Bulletin of the Asia Institute 16 (2006), pp. 53–64.Google Scholar
Skjærvø, Prods Oktor, “Ahura Mazdā and Ārmaiti, Heaven and Earth, in the Old Avesta.” Journal of the American Oriental Scoiety 122 2 (2002), pp. 399–410.Google Scholar
Tremblay, Xavier, “Le pseudo-gâthique. Notes de lecture avestiques II” Proceedings of the 5th Conference of the Societas Iranologica Europæa. (eds) Panaino, Antonio, and Piras, Andrea. Vol. 1. (Ravenna, Mimesis, 2003), pp. 233–282.Google Scholar
Tremblay, Xavier. “A propos de deux éditions récentes du Yašt XIX (Notes de lecture avestiques I).” Die Sprache 38 (1996), pp. 99–131.Google Scholar
Watkins, Calvert,. How to Kill a Dragon: Aspects of Indo-European Poetics (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1995).Google Scholar